Sonipat constituency has a sizeable number of Jat voters. Both Hooda and Digvijay belong to the Jat community.

A day after Congress announced Bhupinder Singh Hooda as party’s nominee from Sonipat Lok Sabha seat, the newly formed Jannayak Janta Party ( JJP), on Monday announced that Digvijay Singh shall be its candidate from Sonipat.

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Digvijay made his political-debut in January this year when he pushed Congress’ stalwart Randeep Surjewala to a third position in a high-voltage Jind assembly bypoll. Although Digvijay did not win Jind, but he made a substantial impact and stood second.

BJP has repeated its current Sonipat MP, Ramesh Chander Kaushik as its nominee.

Talking to The Indian Express, Dushyant Chautala said, “Digvijay shall be contesting from Sonipat. He shall file his nomination papers tomorrow.” Digvijay shall be accompanied by his father Ajay Chautala. A four-time MP from Rohtak, Hooda shall also be filing his nomination from Sonipat Monday. He will be addressing a public rally later.

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Sonipat constituency has a sizeable number of Jat voters. Both Hooda and Digvijay belong to the Jat community. Despite a Modi wave in 2014, Congress won five out of nine assembly constituencies that are part of Sonipat Lok Sabha constituency.

A confident Bhupinder Singh Hooda told The Indian Express, “Even after having their MP in Sonipat and a strong Modi wave in 2014, yet Congress won five assembly segments in Sonipat. The situation has improved far more in our favour in the last five years. Whatever responsibility party has given me, I shall fulfil it.”

JJP is contesting the upcoming polls in Haryana in alliance with the AAP. It also declared Jai Bhagwan Sharma from Kurukshetra and Mehmood Khan from Gurgaon seats. While Sharma is a former state executive committee member of BJP who quit BJP and joined JJP in November, last year; Mehmood Khan is an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate and has worked in multinational companies.